Updates/2008-01-29
Patch Notes and Known Issues 29th January 2008 Version: 1.4.6.0 __TOC__ Today’s maintenance sees the implementation of V 1.4 onto the live servers with many bug fixes, a brand new operation and new HYBRIDS! Cloning now resets your attribute points as well as your skill points. Added new Operation: Sanctus Grotto. All skill points and attribute points have been reset on all characters. Changes * Players will now have a chance to stop and take a breather with the /sit and /liedown commands. * Several items that had lower-than-normal stats were changed to reflect the proper item rarity. This may have resulted in a change in your character’s armor appearance. For example, if you had a purple item with lower stats then a blue item, then the purple item will now have proper stats and a new look. * All players and creatures now have much more Health than before. Health and Armor are now more closely equal portions of avatar and creature total hit points. * Damage ratings throughout the game have been adjusted to account for new armour values and new health values * Game balance has been adjusted to be slightly easier at all levels (higher character survivability) and significantly easier at higher levels. * Pace of combat has been maintained in general * Many types of “damage wall” creatures have had their health reduced. * Added new Staff animations. * The option to show/hide the helmet on your player has been added under Options>Game->Appearance (at the bottom). * Hybrid Races Added - Players who complete certain missions will be able to create clones with hybrid DNA which affects both their appearance and stats. Missions are available at varying locations/levels. DNA options for hybridization include Thrax, Brann, and Forean. * Bootcamp – The enhancement value of all mission rewards in Bootcamp have been modified slightly to be more in balance with the rest of the game. This will not change items currently in possession by players. * Purples have been removed from mission rewards; after 1.4 you will see only Green items available through Shared missions and Blue items available through Instance missions. * All of the Trinity Bridge Logos Conduits now require the player to have the individual Logos Stone to operate it. Previously, certain conduits allowed a player to operate it regardless of having the logos stone in possession. * Elite Boss’s on Maligo Base should now have unique names. * The howler that initially attacks on the second floor of Maligo Base will now only spawn once. * Caves of Donn - What Evil Lurks: Mission now fails if you don’t keep the Foreans alive. * Plateau – “The Stainless Steel Bloodhound” – Mission will now fail if escort dies. * Plateau – “The Stainless Steel Bloodhound” – Escort now only drops junk loot if killed. * Crucible – “Stray Cats” – If mission fails due to player completing “The Other Side Of The Coin,” mission can no longer be regained. * Plateau – “Array Of Hope” – The Trinity Bridge portal to the Temporal Chamber can now be entered by players without the Trinity Bridge Array Logos, but only if it has been activated by a player who already has all six Logos. * Plateau – “Mislaid Plans” - unrelated treasure crate has been removed from area to prevent it being confused with mission useable. * Wilderness bosses Horntail, Archfiend and Old Scratch now spawn individually without group aggro, to allow them to be soloed for mission “The Three Devils.” * Removed automatic completion of Kill Objectives for Thunderhead TOO upon gaining mission if player has previously completed the objective * The Bane Security Officer on Maligo Base that has the access key to level 2, now has a unique name. * The Fithik nests on Palisades are now immune to EMP damage. * Increased the hitpoints for the Fuelling Capsule on Pravus Research for the mission ‘A Means of Production’. * Timer for Bane Supply Depot mission ‘Survivors’ has been updated to 10 minutes. * You can now get the Bane Supply Depot mission ‘Survivor’s one time only, if you fail the mission or complete it to the second objective until the instance has been reset. * New Plateau mission, “All Along The Watchtowers.” * Pre-order customers will now receive the mission to select their companion through radio mission upon reaching Alia Das on Wilderness. * Removed the Big Bertha reward from the mission Pretty, Shiny Things. * Items that give the players emotes now play a new, special effect instead of playing the emote. 855 missions have had their rewards re-evaluated and replaced with new items. Items previously obtained through these missions will not be changed, but will no longer be available to future players. 38 Instances now have a Portable Waypoint at the beginning of them, making it easier for players with Portable Waypoints to go back to the beginning of the instance. * The prisoners on Maligo Base should now be more varied in their physical characteristics. * The Maligo Base mission ‘One Way Trip’ now has an added objective to speak with Demolitionist Maybauer. This was added to avoid confusion on what to do next. * Changed escort and party member radar indicators to be more visible. * Torden Plains Mission: “Targets of Opportunity” – updated to include “Complete all Operations” objective (hidden objective) NOTE – Players will be able to complete and turn in the previous version of this mission if it is already active. * Added 16 new missions to Marshes. * New mission: The Infesus Garrison Directive * New mission: Infiltrate Infesus Garrison * New mission: Rock and Rumble * New mission: Supply Pass * New mission: Tough Translating * New mission: Scientific Salvage * New mission: Taking the Pills * New mission: Arming the Brann * New mission: Incursion Investigation Powers/Abilities * The skill ‘Training: Tools’ now has the same icon for the pump points as the primary icon. * Signature Abilities now have 5-minute cooldown timers. * Tripled the damage absorption from Shield Wave. * The type of damage done by turrets summoned at each level of the Turret ability have been shifted so that Pump I does Virulent damage. * Added a game effect icon for Reflective Armor. * Medic reinforcements should no longer use their healing disc to melee from outside of melee range. * Added a visual effect for Cure’s revive target. * Critical physical hits will now apply a damage over time effect on the target. * Set Max Range on all staves to ‘Melee Long (5m).’ * Shield Extender: ** Reduced long term effectiveness so you should now be able to see all versions of the shield go down before the timer is up. ** Lessened total damage absorbed (based on % of target’s armour). *** 100% *** 125% *** 150% *** 175% *** 200% ** Left the % of incoming damage directed to shield the same. ** The recast has been reduced to 45 seconds making this decision happen more often. * Vortex ** Reduced the power cost ** 10 second reuse timer added ** UI Tooltip Updated with changes * Shrapnel ** Reduced cost (old -> new) *** 25 -> 25 *** 50 -> 35 *** 75 -> 45 *** 100 -> 55 *** 125 -> 65 ** Upped min damage (all used to be 150) *** 150 *** 160 *** 170 *** 180 *** 200 * Reflective Armor tooltip has been changed. RA now reflects all damage types. * Direct/radial healing/repair tools now function at correct calculated values for all pump levels, even after deaths. * Rushing Blow ** Reduced the power cost ** 5 Second reuse timer added ** UI Tooltip Updated with changes * Staff ** Staff melee damage increased by 20% ** New Animations for faster attacks ** New Sounds ** Staff has been updated such that its melee attacks now benefit from being ‘modified’, ‘experimental’, and ‘prototype’. ** All Staves now attack at 5m melee as opposed to 3m * Reflection ** Is now a fast cast ability ** Updated cast animations ** Updated sound * Reduced attribute buffs and debuffs for various abilities ** These became much more powerful with the addition of new secondary attribute effects ** This also fixes some debuff stacking problems * Affected abilities: ** Reduced the attribute buffs from Bio Augmentation all pump levels from 50% to 30% ** Reduced the attribute buffs / debuffs from Reconstruction from 50% to 30% ** Reduced the attribute debuffs from Disease from 50% to 30% * Increased the magazine size of Fire and Ice shotguns from 15 round (5 shots @ 3 per shot) to 30 rounds (10 shots @ 3 per shot) * Shield Extender maximum damage absorption has been reduced, and its cooldown time has been significantly reduced * Two-way squad portable waypoints are now accessible by all squadmates from any permanent or portable waypoint – now you can build your own personal waypoint network on operations maps! * Machine Guns, Leech Guns, Polarity Guns, and Propellant Guns now take lower quality ammunition at higher levels * Hand Grenade and EMP Bomb damage has been increased significantly * Shield Extender now requires Logos * New Engineer ability “Feedback” replaced Temporary Wormhole. Feedback causes targets to take damage from performing various types of actions. * The Medic power, Regeneration Wave has had its regeneration percentage/per second lowered. This ability was originally slated have a 4% increased regen rate, but was instead changed to a 400%, making the ability completely overpowered, sometimes causing invulnerability. This bug has now been corrected. * Adjusted the attribute bonuses given by various armour modules for better balance between the modules and for less overpowered min/max cases. ** Primary attribute bonuses were decreased (but on the whole are better than before because of the new secondary attribute effects) ** Secondary attribute bonuses were increased, because they were disproportionately weak ** Regeneration rates were converted from percentages to flat values and on the whole are more powerful now ** Affected armour modules are: *** Body Bonus *** Mind Bonus *** Spirit Bonus *** Health Bonus *** Power Bonus *** Regen Power *** Regen Armor *** Regen Health ** The three primary attributes (Body, Mind and Spirit) now grant additional combat bonuses: *** Body improves the maximum absorption (but not the recharge rate) of armour *** Mind improves the damage done by your Logos abilities *** Spirit improves your chance to Crit Hit, with both weapons and abilities ** All base recharge/regeneration rates for Armor, Power, and Health are now based on flat amounts per second, where before they were a percentage of maximum per second ** The base regeneration rate for Power has been improved significantly ** The base regeneration rate for Health has been improved slightly ** Armor absorption and recharge rates have been re-weighted as follows: *** Generally the extreme differences between armour suits have been narrowed somewhat, for example: *** Bio now has a much higher total absorption and a slower recharge rate *** Graviton now has a slightly reduced damage absorption capacity but recharges faster than before ** Descriptions are Poor, Fair, Good and Excellent, where “Excellent” is about twice as strong as “Fair” *** Motor Assist: Absorption is Fair, Recharge is Fair *** Hazmat: Absorption is Fair, Recharge is Excellent *** Reflective: Absorption is Good, Recharge is Good *** Bio: Absorption is Good, Recharge is Excellent *** Graviton: Absorption is Excellent, Recharge is Fair *** Mech: Absorption is Excellent, Recharge is Poor *** Stealth: Absorption is Good, Recharge is Poor Crafting/MS * Items with Level 5 modules on them can be disassembled. * Different items can now have different prices at different vendors. UI * Client version information is now sent with /bug and /petition * /bug and /petition window now sets cursor to the appropriate Subject or Body box. * Added new string substitutions for the chat window: ** %tname% gets replaced with the last name of the targeted entity, or “?” if no entity is currently targeted ** %tfname% gets replaced with the first name of the targeted entity, or “?” if no entity is currently targeted ** These substitutions can be used with all /slash commands. ** Example: ** /invite %tname% invite the targeted player to party ** /lookup %tname% get information about the targeted player ** /w %tname% send a private whisper to the targeted player * With the next patch, the first time you run it, you will see the message: ** “Tabula Rasa would like to auto configure its graphics settings based on your hardware. Would you like to auto configure your settings now?” *** Yes – The autoconfigure utility picks and sets your graphics settings based on your hardware (see table below) *** No – Your current settings are kept, you aren’t prompted again *** Cancel – Your current settings are kept; you are prompted again next time you start ** Autoconfigure: *** System Memory < 640MB, LOW *** Video Memory < 256MB, LOW *** System Memory < 1.5GB, restricted to VERY HIGH or below *** Video Memory < 512MB, restricted to ULTRA or below ** Resolution: 1024x768 or closest supported resolution. If current resolution is widescreen, selected resolution is widescreen as well. *** NVIDIA FX series, LOW *** NVIDIA 6000 series, NORMAL *** NVIDIA 7000 series up to 8800, HIGH *** NVIDIA 8800 and above, MAX (or Ultra if not 512MB card) *** ATI Radeon 9600 and below, LOW *** ATI Radeon 9700/9800, NORMAL *** ATI X300/600, LOW *** ATI X800, NORMAL *** ATI X1000 series up to 1500, LOW *** ATI X1600, NORMAL *** ATI X1800, VERY HIGH *** ATI X1900 and up, MAX (or Ultra if not 512MB card) ** Note: ATI x2000 series – driver has a bug with static shadows and they default to mode with static shadows enabled. Creatures * Boss creatures are now immune to fear effects. * All boss and large bane creatures are no longer susceptible to confusion-type abilities such as Hack and Traitor. * Add fear Immunity to all boss variants that recently received confusion immunity. * Overseer Skeev will now have a unique appearance. * Flaregashers will now do significantly more damage in close combat, but their melee attack will no longer be completely armour piercing. * Flaregashers can now spit fireballs while pursuing their target. * Infected Foreans will now do significantly more damage with their lightning attacks. * Infected Foreans will now heal more effectively. * Hunters are no longer immune to electric damage, but are now immune to sonic damage. * Hunters will now use their net ability more often. * Hunter names now vary based on level range. * The hunter net ability now has additional pump levels to scale up damage for shared/instance and minion/boss. * The hunter net ability is now considered electric damage. (previously physical) * The hunter net ability now has a much faster reuse time at all pump levels, with boss types having a shorter reuse than minions. (Previously 30 seconds for all, now it’s 10 and 5 respectively) * Hunters have learned how to use their energy shields to absorb a portion of incoming damage, instantly convert it into electricity and reflect it back to the attacker. They are unable to do so with virulent based attacks however. * Nitroglazers are now immune to ice based attacked. * Juggernaughts founds in mission instances will be more difficult than their battlefield map counterparts. * Juggernaughts have learned how to use their cannons to generate a massive shockwave. * Xanx will now fully regain their health from feasting on their fallen brethren. * Xanx names in instances will now scale with level. * Linkers and Howlers can no longer be killed purely by EMP damage. There was an issue causing them not to be flagged as biological creatures, which has now been corrected. * There are now less Striders terrorizing the plains of Howling Maw. * Reduced Miasma cold debuff. * Reduced Miasma hitpoints. * Reduced Miasma phase-in AoE dps. * There are now more Warnet Spawns on Howling Maw to facilitate completion of the Howling Maw Targets of Opportunity. * There are now more Filchers on Howling Maw to facilitate completion of the Howling Maw Targets of Opportunity. * There are now more Infected Miasma on Howling Maw to facilitate completion of the Howling Maw Targets of Opportunity. * Increased the overall spawn amounts in the southern portion of Howling Maw. * Increased the overall spawn scale in Magma Caverns. * Thrax Grenadiers now share the same resistances and vulnerabilities as all of their Thrax brethren. * The Brann of the Phanin Research Center have received appropriate resistances and vulnerabilities. * The Warden Bot Bosses of the Ruins of Tampeii will now hit like bosses. * The Brann of the Ruins of Tampeii have received appropriate resistances and vulnerabilities. * Strider Overseer Gorko on Torden Plains is no longer bright red. * Destroyed objects in Devil’s Den should no longer respawn. * Penumbra operatives in Magma Caverns will now display correctly as instanced enemies in the target window. Bug Fixes * For the mission Funeral Derge players are instructed to go to Fort Intrepid and kill a boss named Derge. The specified location is the Fort Intrepid CP, but Derge is not there when the Bane control the CP or when the AFS control the CP. Instead he spawns at 859 188 476 which is on top of a very tall wall. * Item: Adrenaline Booster: When used with full adrenaline the cooldown on the item is activate but item is not used * The Demolitionist is not receiving the +6 pump points at level 50 and the Engineer is not receiving the +4 Pump Points at level 30. All other classes are being awarded the correct amount of pump points. * Exiting and re-entering an instance can cause you to disconnect from the server. * Mission: Fuel Lake Sabotage (Divide: Timora Mines Instance): It is hard to target the centre fuel lake. * Explosive Wave in PVP combat does not appear to do the correct amount of damage as per the tooltip text. * Your mission log should no longer reset when you log out. * Mires has been tweaked for performance again. * Staff animation has been changed. * Valverde Howling Maw: Low Fidelity – Fixed a bug that caused players to not receive credit after escorting the Xanx onto the Battlefield. * Torden Plains: Kardash Atta Colony – More Lightbenders spawn, allowing solo and duos to complete the mission Unexpected Guests. * Torden Plains: Kardash Atta Colony – There is now a chance that Workers, Servants, and Taskmasters will spawn with Soldier patrols. * Fixed a bug in the Brann Water Refinery (Mission: Defusing the Situation) that prevented the detonators from respawning after re-taking the mission. * Minor typos corrected on the completion text of the Maligo Base mission ‘Showdown’. * Minor grammar corrections done to opening text of the Maligo Base mission ‘Showdown’ * Minor grammar corrections done to objective completion text for Bane Supply Depot mission ‘Survivors’. * Minor grammar corrections done to mission completion text for Bane Supply Depot mission ‘Survivors’. * Fixed a minor text inconsistency with the Rage ability tooltips. * Engineering: Genetics skill tooltip now indicates it allows use of Tissue Extractor tools. * Tissue Extractors and Salvage Tools no longer report off-the-wall numbers for Extraction Chance. * The skill tooltips for Engineering: Genetics and Engineering: Photonics now correctly describe those skills’ relationships to Tissue Extractor and Salvage tools. * Removed references to bleedthrough. * Fixed the skill level requirements for crafting Concussion Grenades. * Altered the damage absorption and recharge rate descriptions to be more accurate. * Crafting skill tooltips now better explain the relationship between skill pump level and the strength of an enhancement that can be improved. * Mires Targets of Opportunity mission fixes: Waypoint objective should now give Title, Operations objective should now give title, Operations should now complete properly (instead of giving 2 bumps for 1 operation). * Crucible – “Funeral Derge” – Objective indicator is now in proper location. * Wilderness, Crucible, Plateau and Abyss – “Targets of Opportunity” – Mission related and other non-repeatable objectives will now auto complete for cloned characters if they were already completed prior to cloning. * Crucible – “Targets of Opportunity” – Completing all story missions will now give player the proper title “Plateau Veteran” instead of “Ashen Desert Veteran.” * Abyss Targets of Opportunity – “Complete all story missions” objective should now complete correctly. * Fixed a problem where rocket launchers wouldn’t splash damage if the target was killed from (or before) the rocket hit. * Fixed a case where actions wouldn’t fully resolve if the source died during the action, most notable cases of this were ‘zombie’ mobs with no health, but not lying down dead; or players who’d die and not get a hospital dialog. * Fixed bug that was breaking missions if you were far away from your team when a mission-item was dropped * A big text message will now display if the action you are attempting is out of range or out of line of sight. * The \ScreenShots folder is now automatically created when a screen shot is taken (“Print Screen” hit). * Fixed: Polymorph no longer causes a client crash after using sword. * Fixed Audio Bug: Not keeping sound volume after restore from minimize. * Fixed a bug where damage flagged to not reflect was reflecting. * Fixed problem where Atta Warcry brings in more Atta soldier than expected. * Removed Item Tracker from “Big Risk” causing mission to fail improperly. * Fixed bug where “BOMB” logos was not required for Thunderhead TOO. * Fixed bug where killing bosses was not properly updating Thunderhead TOO. * Ambient ammunition crates in Foreas divide will now take proper damage and respawn. * Purgas Station mission ‘Chain Reaction’ now properly shares with all members of the squad. * Crates for the Bane Supply Depot mission ‘Survivors’ now respawn so all squad members can properly obtain items. * Respawn points on Purgas Station should display the correct localized text. * Map: Torden Abyss: Overhead map has Penumbra Section 1 teleporter labelled as section 2. This has been fixed. * Psychotic Elite Brann Soldiers in the Ruins of Tampeii will now display properly. * Mires Targets of Opportunity mission should now complete the “complete all Mires Story missions” objective correctly. * Targets of Opportunity for Mires Waypoints Objective should now complete properly for clones. * Abyss Targets of Opportunity can now be completed by cloned characters. * Plateau “Looking For Clues” will no longer break if Pendrik is killed by another player or AFS Turret. * Crafting progress bar timer decreases correctly for Disassembly when there are multiple possible outputs. * Fixed a bug that prevented clones and certain players from completing “Howling Maw Targets of Opportunity.” * Fixed a bug that caused “Defusing the Situation” in Brann Water Refinery from resetting properly. * Palisades mission “Kill the Light” now has a mission reward. * Map now shows the location of the waypoint at Dia Toma on Howling Maw. * Fixed a bug that caused creatures to get stuck in doorways in Crucible: Incurables Ward. * Typos have been fixed in the Ashen Desert Targets of Opportunity. * Typos have been fixed in the Howling Maw Targets of Opportunity. * Typos have been fixed in the mission Artillery Annihilation. * Command Jillian and other Stealth NPCs are now properly wearing Stealth Armor instead of Graviton Armor. * Fixed a bug where the healing bonus from tools wasn’t applied if the healer had died since zoning. * Menu items for chat tab options, party options, and social window should now resize if the text for it is wrapping. * Social window scrollbars should now update correctly. * Brann Water Refinery – Typos have been fixed in Scout Coen’s dialog. * Machina Control Chips (another specially flagged items) can now be looted by anyone. * Fixed ‘Average Clan Level’ calculation in Clan Warfare menu. We only use the highest level alt when determining average. * Plateau Targets of Opportunity – “Become a Penumbra Agent” objective will now properly complete for clones of characters who have already completed the required missions. * Dybukkar Garrison and Bane Fluxite Mines should now have complete loading screens. * Squad UI should no longer be displaying stats for wrong party members. * Reworked the way prices are displayed in the vendor window so that larger prices no longer get cut off. * Restricted clan rank name input to only be 16 characters, switched clan rank name display to not wrap text. Known Issues * Game performance may degrade over time. If this happens, please restart the game. * The tier 4 spy ability “magnesium flash” is not working correctly; enemies get flashed eyes, but they can still attack you up to, and including, 60 meters away while “blinded”. * ATI 9800 Radeon Pro AGP card users may have sky distortion when graphics settings are on low. * Some Exobiologist skills do not work correctly in PvP. * Ability: Engineer: Bot Construction: Repair bot is not repairing squad members. * Ranger Reinforcements are not doing melee damage. * The Crab Mines Skill currently has a bug where you cannot deploy one mine of each type at the same time. You can currently only deploy 3 different types at a time. -Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, http://www.playtr.com/news/patch_notes/patch_notes_and_known_issues_0.html Patch Notes